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KIT HARINGTON as Dane Whitman/Black Knight Eternals (2021) | dir. Chloé Zhao

#kit harington

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KIT HARINGTON • The Death & Life of John F. Donovan 2018 • Semi Autobiographical • dir. Xavier Dolan

#god is good all the time yeah #kit harington

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ALL TIME LOW: LIVE FROM NASHVILLE

#hes the hottest bass player hands down #zack merrick

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Just realized I never posted the finished versions of the A6 crew....

#a6 #HELL YEAH

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overestimulated out of my mind today

#and to top that my in laws are staying for the weekend and its been awful. theyre great #but the thing is that my house is a mess and nothings in place and i cant do the things i normally do because i gotta stay with them

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bro we are wolves.... howl with me bro ..... aiuuuuu

#oc:alkar

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this may be an unpopular opinion but starfield is bethesdas best game on release

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you ever think about how the followers of the apocalypse are actually the perfect foil to the brotherhood of steel being that one organization is a coalition of anarchists who seek to preserve and disseminate technology/information throughout the entire wasteland and the brotherhood of steel are an imperialist force who seek to preserve technology by hoarding it and preventing the wasteland from having any access to it? but the brotherhood is the unofficial face of the series and the followers have only been in two games.

#yeah.....such a great faction

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STARFIELD September 6, 2023 Bethesda Game Studios

#surprisingly good and surprisingly with little to no bugs! i love playing it

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absolutely disgusting but not surprising people on this cursed website wanna fuck baldurs gate cthulhu

#really. like really. this is not a 'loving a monster for who he is'

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#oc:bobby

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Representation vs. Appropriation

When I made a tumblr blog post pointing out that the character creator in Baldur’s Gate 3 included culturally appropriative face tattoos, lot of people decided to bend over backwards to defend this. Excuses I have found while giving my blocking finger a routine work-out thus far have ranged from “Larian Studios is European so they don’t know any better”, to a classic “it’s just a fantasy game, stop being so oversensitive”. But by far the most common poor reaction was, “what if it’s representation?”

Now, two Māori people were quick to jump into this post and say themselves, clear as day, that this is not representation, it is appropriation. That should be enough right there—settlers do not get to decide what is and isn’t representation for us Indigenous folks. But white people not listening to Indigenous voices is nothing new. I’ve been forced to learn that if you want to be taken seriously by settlers, your best chance is to coddle and appease their poor little delicate feelings. So, let’s pretend for a second that these “what if it’s representation?” questions are actually asked in good, albeit ignorant faith, and not just a pathetic gut-reaction to avoid having to critically think about a beloved game. (Which, by the way, I still overall adore myself, mind you.) Let’s pretend they actually want an answer, and give it to them.

It’s very easy to list the examples of positive Indigenous representation I’ve personally experienced in video games, not made by Indigenous folks ourselves, because there’s only one game that comes to mind: Assassin’s Creed 3. The protagonist of AC3 is Ratonhnhaké:ton of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka people. Ubisoft is a terrible company for other reasons, but they did one thing right in the development of this game: They hired a cultural consultant, Thomas Deer. Deer was able to guide them through avoiding offensiveness and stereotypes, and include proper cultural touchstones that Indigenous players, especially Mohawk players, would want to see. For example, Ubisoft originally wanted to include sacred ceremonial masks in the game, but Deer told them that depictions of these masks would be taboo. He also helped them choose what clothing and jewellery was authentic to the Nation. This, among much more, helped create a truly representative experience. What makes it representation is that it features an Indigenous character in a positive way, without crossing lines into what should not be touched by outsiders. But had Ubisoft decided to ignore Deer’s consultation and go ahead with using those sacred masks… that would have been cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation is taking a closed cultural practice and using it yourself, despite not belonging to the culture it comes from. The key word there is closed, as in, something not for outsiders to touch. Eating frybread is not cultural appropriation, because it’s something freely shared by Natives to others. But wearing a fake headdress to your local musical festival is cultural appropriation, because headdresses are sacred regalia not freely shared by Natives to others. It really is that simple: just listen to boundaries set by the People.

“But my fake headdress is just clothing.” “But a fake kakiniit is just ink.” “But my fake totem pole is just decoration.” Except not, and the very fact that you have no respect for the history and meaning behind these things is the perfect example as to why they are not for you. But being told something isn’t for them has always been a hard a pill for settlers to swallow.

The phrase “nothing about us without us” is often used when advocating for rights and respect of minorities. It was first brought into English vocabulary by South Africa’s disability activism in the 1990’s, and has since been adapted across the world as a slogan to mean uplifting voices of the people you claim to want to help, instead of speaking over them. I personally first heard it through EDIRA work (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Reconciliation and Accessibility) at my job, and I feel like it can be applied in many different ways, this being one of them. The best representation comes from listening to the people you want to represent. Had Larian done that, they would have known that imitating those tattoos was off limits. But since they didn’t, they took what wasn’t theirs to take. And that’s appropriation.

#tbh i didnt understand why they decided to go along with it. let alone think about putting it into a game we are in 2023 #this type of discussion is everywhere you cant plead oopsie daisies

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that man is my girl

#oc:space cowboy #galahad @ drake at some point

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ever since i was a little girl i always wanted to be unemployed

#my biggest dream is to win in the lottery and retire early

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in other news collecting rpg dice sets is a path of no return

#i recently bought two from brazilian artisans and theyre so pretty!

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North Carolina // Peter Stout

#oc:space cowboy

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NEON, PLEASURE CITY Starfield (2023)

#yeah baby love it here! #starfield